Rather Be Healthy

A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and one in four are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.

Carb-rich processed foods are a primary driver of these statistics, and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self-control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.

Most recently, researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital concluded that highly processed carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, promoting excess hunger.1 As reported by Science Daily:2

“These findings suggest that limiting these ‘high-glycemic index’ foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”

While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, it is important that they are at least thinking in the right direction. Also, the timing is ironic, considering the fact that the American Medical Association (AMA) recently declared obesity a disease, treatable with a variety of conventional methods, from drugs to novel anti-obesity vaccines…

The featured research is on the mark, and shows just how foolhardy the AMA’s financially-driven decision really is. Drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to do anything to address the underlying problem of addictive junk food.

Brain Imaging Shows Food Addiction Is Real

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition3 examined the effects of high-glycemic foods on brain activity, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). One dozen overweight or obese men between the ages of 18 and 35 each consumed one high-glycemic and one low-glycemic meal. The fMRI was done four hours after each test meal. According to the researchers:

“Compared with an isocaloric low-GI meal, a high-glycemic index meal decreased plasma glucose, increased hunger, and selectively stimulated brain regions associated with reward and craving in the late postprandial period, which is a time with special significance to eating behavior at the next meal.”

The study demonstrates what many people experience: After eating a high-glycemic meal, i.e. rapidly digesting carbohydrates, their blood sugar initially spiked, followed by a sharp crash a few hours later. The fMRI confirmed that this crash in blood glucose intensely activated a brain region involved in addictive behaviors, known as the nucleus accumbens.

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, weighed in on the featured research in an article by NPR:4

“As Dr. Robert Lustig… points out, this research can’t tell us if there’s a cause and effect relationship between eating certain foods and triggering brain responses, or if those responses lead to overeating and obesity.

‘[The study] doesn’t tell you if this is the reason they got obese,’ says Lustig, ‘or if this is what happens once you’re already obese.’ Nonetheless… he thinks this study offers another bit of evidence that ‘this phenomenon is real.’”

Previously, Dr. Lustig has explained the addictive nature of sugar as follows:

“The brain’s pleasure center, called the nucleus accumbens, is essential for our survival as a species… Turn off pleasure, and you turn off the will to live… But long-term stimulation of the pleasure center drives the process of addiction… When you consume any substance of abuse, including sugar, the nucleus accumbens receives a dopamine signal, from which you experience pleasure. And so you consume more.

The problem is that with prolonged exposure, the signal attenuates, gets weaker. So you have to consume more to get the same effect — tolerance. And if you pull back on the substance, you go into withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal constitute addiction. And make no mistake, sugar is addictive.”

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Previous research has demonstrated that refined sugar is more addictive than cocaine, giving you pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals. Your brain essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own opioids.

Researchers have speculated that the sweet receptors located on your tongue, which evolved in ancestral times when the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to the seemingly unlimited access to a cheap and omnipresent sugar supply in the modern diet.

Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, thus leading to addiction.

But it doesn’t end there. Food manufacturers have gotten savvy to the addictive nature of certain foods and tastes, including saltiness and sweetness, and have turned addictive taste into a science in and of itself.

In a recent New York Times article,5 Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, dished the dirt on the processed food industry, revealing that there’s a conscious effort on behalf of food manufacturers to get you hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive to make.

I recommend reading his article in its entirety, as it offers a series of case studies that shed light on the extraordinary science and marketing tactics that make junk food so hard to resist.

Sugar, salt and fat are the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. In a Time Magazine interview6 discussing his book, Moss says:

“One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation. Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became known as the ‘bliss point.’ Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the process they’ve engineered that struck me as really stunning.”

It’s important to realize that added sugar (typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is not confined to junky snack foods. For example, most of Prego’s spaghetti sauces have one common feature, and that is sugar—it’s the second largest ingredient, right after tomatoes. A half-cup of Prego Traditional contains the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar.

Novel Flavor-Enhancers May Also Contribute to Food Addiction

Another guiding principle for the processed food industry is known as “sensory-specific satiety.” Moss describes this as “the tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm your brain, which responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The greatest successes, whether beverages or foods, owe their “craveability” to complex formulas that pique your taste buds just enough, without overwhelming them, thereby overriding your brain’s inclination to say “enough.”

Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role.

Senomyx specializes in helping companies find new flavors that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at best, seeing how these “flavor enhancers” are created using secret, patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food label, which leaves you completely in the dark. As of now, they simply fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors, and they don’t even need to be tested for safety, as they’re used in minute amounts.

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How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health

To protect your health, I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods. It’s important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

By taking the advice offered in the featured study and cutting out these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy fats, not protein—a fact not addressed in this research. I believe most people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthful fats, which include:

Olives and olive oil

Coconuts and coconut oil

Butter made from raw, organic grass-fed milk

Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat

Organic pastured eggs and pastured meats

Avocados

I’ve detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight. A growing body of evidence also suggests that intermittent fasting is particularly effective if you’re struggling with excess weight as it provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a fat-burning hormone. It also increases resting energy expenditure while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Best of all, once you transition to fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbs will virtually disappear, as if by magic… While you’re making the adjustment, you could try an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many sugar addicts kick their sweet habit. Other tricks to help you overcome your sugar cravings include:
•Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis will know that significant amounts of cardiovascular exercise is one of the best “cures” for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.
•Organic black coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains compounds such as cafestrol — found plentifully in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee — which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing foods.7 This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other substances, such as sugar.

Heat-Induced Acrylamide May Be a Primary Hazard of Processed Food

Approximately 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is spent on processed foods, and food marketers do a masterful job at making it seem like fast foods and junk foods are the obvious choice.

Some even manage to make you believe such foods are a healthy option. But not only are these processed foods “dead” and devoid of any natural nutrition, they can also be loaded with potentially carcinogenic substances.

Just over a decade ago, researchers discovered that a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical called acrylamide is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, whether baked, fried, roasted, grilled or toasted.

The chemical is formed from a reaction between sugars and an amino acid (asparagine) during high-temperature cooking. The answer, of course, is to limit or eliminate processed foods and increase the amount of whole, raw foods in your diet. I typically aim for 80-85 percent raw food in my own diet.

Acrylamide May Be a Primary Hazard of Processed Food

Acrylamide can form in many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 212°F (100°C), but carbohydrate-rich foods are the most vulnerable to this heat-induced byproduct. As a general rule, the chemical is formed when food is heated enough to produce a fairly dry and “browned” surface. Hence, it can be found in:
•Potatoes: chips, French fries and other roasted or fried potato foods
•Grains: bread crust, toast, crisp bread, roasted breakfast cereals and various processed snacks
•Coffee; roasted coffee beans and ground coffee powder. Surprisingly, coffee substitutes based on chicory actually contains 2-3 times more acrylamide than real coffee

Acrylamide is not the only hazard associated with heat-processed foods, however. The three-year long EU project known as Heat-Generated Food Toxicants1 (HEATOX), identified more than 800 heat-induced compounds in food, 52 of which are potential carcinogens… For example, the high heat of grilling reacts with proteins in red meat, poultry, and fish, creating heterocyclic amines, which have also been linked to cancer.

Humans are not the only victims here. As discussed by holistic veterinarian Dr. Barbara Royal, pet foods also contain acrylamide and heterocyclic amines, courtesy of commercial pet food processing methods.

Exposure to Acrylamide Increases Your Cancer Risk

Animal studies have shown that exposure to acrylamide increases the risk of several types of cancer, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer considers acrylamide a “probable human carcinogen.” According to a 1988 study2:

“The data show that acrylamide is capable of inducing genotoxic, carcinogenic, developmental, and reproductive effects in tested organisms. Thus, acrylamide may pose more than a neurotoxic health hazard to exposed humans.

Acrylamide is a small organic molecule with very high water solubility. These properties probably facilitate its rapid absorption and distribution throughout the body. After absorption, acrylamide is rapidly metabolized, primarily by glutathione conjugation, and the majority of applied material is excreted within 24 hours… Acrylamide can bind to DNA… which has implications for its genotoxic and carcinogenic potential.”

A study3 published in 2007 linked higher dietary acrylamide intake with an increased risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women, particularly among non-smokers. It has also been linked to nerve damage and other neurotoxic effects, including neurological problems in workers handling the substance.

While the EPA regulates acrylamide in drinking water and the FDA regulates the amount of acrylamide residue in materials that may come in contact with food, they do not currently have any guidelines limiting the chemical in food itself.

How Much Acrylamide Are You Getting from Your Diet?

In drinking water, the federal limit for acrylamide is 0.5 parts per billion, or about 0.12 micrograms in an eight-ounce glass of water. However, a six-ounce serving of French fries can contain 60 micrograms of acrylamide—about 500 times the allowable limit! A 2002 food analysis published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry4, found moderate levels of acrylamide (5−50 μg/kg) in heated protein-rich foods and higher levels (150−4,000 μg/kg) in carbohydrate-rich foods. Unheated or boiled foods showed undetectable levels (<5 μg/kg) of acrylamide, leading the researchers to conclude: "Consumption habits indicate that the acrylamide levels in the studied heated foods could lead to a daily intake of a few tens of micrograms." Potato chips in particular are notoriously high in this dangerous chemical. So high, in fact, that in 2005 the state of California actually sued potato chip makers for failing to warn California consumers about the health risks of acrylamide in their products. A settlement was reached in 20085 when Frito-Lay and several other potato chip makers agreed to reduce the acrylamide levels in their chips to 275 parts per billion (ppb) by 2011, which is low enough to avoid needing a cancer warning label. Still, that’s a far cry from the allowable limit of 0.5 ppb in drinking water! The 2005 report6 "How Potato Chips Stack Up: Levels of Cancer-Causing Acrylamide in Popular Brands of Potato Chips," issued by the California-based Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), spelled out the dangers of this popular snack. According to their analysis, ALL potato chip products tested exceeded the legal limit of acrylamide by a minimum of 39 times, and as much as 910 times! Interestingly, baked chips, which are often touted as a healthier chip, can contain more than three times the level of acrylamide in regular chips, according to US Food and Drug Administration data7. How to Avoid Heat-Induced Toxins in Your Diet Acrylamide levels vary greatly among processed foods, even among different batches of the same food item. The chemical has so far only been found in foods heated above 250 F/120 C, which includes most processed foods. Basing your diet on whole foods, with the majority or a significant portion eaten raw or only lightly cooked is therefore one of the best ways to avoid this cancer-causing cooking byproduct. Aside from creating potentially toxic byproducts, cooking and processing also depletes the food of valuable micronutrients, which is another reason for eating as much raw food as possible. Another important aspect of raw foods is the energetic aspect. Dr. Johanna Budwig from Germany has stated that live foods are electron rich and act as high-powered electron donors and “solar resonance fields” to attract, store, and conduct the sun's energy in your body. The greater your body’s store of light energy, the more energy you’ll have available for healing and the maintenance of optimal health. For the times when you do cook your food, keep the following tips in mind: •Frying, baking and broiling appear to be the worst offenders, while boiling or steaming appear to be safer •Longer cooking times increase acrylamide, so the shorter the duration of cooking, the better •Soaking raw potatoes in water for 15-30 minutes prior to roasting may help reduce acrylamide formation during cooking •The darker brown the food, the more acrylamide it contains (for instance, dark brown toast compared to light brown toast) •Acrylamide is found primarily in plant-based foods, such as potatoes and grain products (not typically in meat, dairy or seafood) According to the findings by the HEATOX project, you're far less likely to ingest dangerous levels of acrylamide when you eat home-cooked foods compared to industrially or restaurant-prepared foods. And when you do eat at home, the best advice they could give was to avoid overcooking your food. For more in-depth information about acrylamide, I recommend reading the online report: "Heat-generated Food Toxicants, Identification, Characterization and Risk Minimization"8. Take Control of Your Health with Whole, Raw Food While many foods – from coffee and breakfast cereal to bread – contain acrylamide, the highest levels have been detected in starchy plant-based foods, particularly French fries and potato chips. As a general rule, just remember that cooking food at high temperatures is ill advised, and that most processed foods will contain acrylamide as a side effect of high-heat processing. Ideally, consume foods that are raw or minimally processed to avoid these types of toxic byproducts—the more raw food, the better. My nutrition plan emphasizes the need for at least one-third of your foods to be consumed raw. Personally, I consume about 80-85 percent of my food raw, which I believe is one of the most important factors that help keep me healthy. For a step-by-step guide to make the transition to a healthier diet as simple and smooth as possible, simply follow the advice in my optimized nutrition plan. Remember, eating fresh whole foods is the "secret" to getting healthier, losing weight and really enjoying your food. Once you get used to it, you'll find you can whip up a healthful meal from scratch in the same amount of time it would have taken you to drive down the street to pick up fast food. The main difference will be greater satisfaction, both physically and mentally, and perhaps even financially, as processed foods typically end up being more expensive than cooking from scratch.

10 Reasons To Quit Coffee (Plus Healthy Alternatives)
By Mark Hyman, MD

Coffee: Is it good or bad for us? So many conflicting reports exist about both the benefits and drawbacks of coffee and needless to say, it can be a confusing topic. First, let’s discuss what makes coffee such a hot topic widely disputed in today’s health circles.

Coffee and Blood Sugar Metabolism

While there are many controversies about coffee’s role in the prevention of Parkinson’s disease to breast cancer, I’m mostly interested in the conversation relating to its effect on blood sugar metabolism. In my latest book, The Blood Sugar Solution, I explain how insulin resistance and inflammation are at the core of modern-day chronic diseases.

The single most important healthy habit all of us can adopt is to manage our blood sugar by decreasing the triggers that push it out of balance. Curious if coffee is one of those triggers?

As Dr. Walter C. Willet of Harvard School of Public Health says, “Coffee is an amazingly potent collection of biologically active compounds.” Like any food-like substance, coffee has far-reaching effects on the body and needs to be respected as a potent drug.

Caffeine, perhaps the most widely appreciated “drug” compound in coffee, only makes up a mere 1 to 2 percent of the bean. The chlorogenic acids, caffeol, polyphenols, phytoestrogens and diterpenes are now beginning to be researched on their effects on human health and glucose metabolism as well.

Coffee and Diabetes

In the 1980s and 1990s several prospective cohort studies were done to investigate the correlation between coffee and diabetes. Many of those studies reported that there is an inverse dose-dependent association with the risk of Type 2 diabetes. This means that for reasons still unclear, all those research studies found that the more coffee people with normal blood sugar drank, the less risk appeared for developing Type 2 diabetes. Several constituents in coffee might be responsible for these consistent findings.

Chlorogenic acid in coffee might inhibit glucose-6-phosphatase, an enzyme that regulates blood sugar metabolism in the liver. It could also be due to the indisputably-high levels of antioxidants, which have a benign effect on insulin sensitivity.

Not surprisingly, the news channels then sounded the bell that coffee was protective, and we all enjoyed our cup of joe without any remorse.

Until the next report.

Some curious minds wanted to know exactly who was protected. And why? How? These studies showed that in people with Type 2 diabetes coffee intake was correlated with insulin spikes and increased blood sugar after a meal. Further research has shown that the caffeine in coffee might be the culprit responsible for the secretion of higher levels of insulin from the pancreas.

Clearly higher insulin and glucose levels are not the work we want to bestow on a body healing from insulin resistance. Considering that diabesity affects nearly 1.7 billion people worldwide and growing, the nightly news now sounded the alarm of caution that perhaps our coffee habit is a detrimental addiction needing to be kicked to the curb.

I often am asked why coffee is removed from my programs. While certain populations of people may tolerate coffee and even enjoy some health benefits, it is evident that it is not for everyone.

Chances are if you are reading this either you or someone you care about is sick, inflamed, hormonally imbalanced, nutritionally-compromised, overworked, stressed out, fatigued, depressed, and toxic. Coffee is not part of the medicine required for your healing.

Here Are 10 Reasons Why You May Want To Quit Coffee
1.The caffeine in coffee increases catecholamines, your stress hormones. The stress response elicits cortisol and increases insulin. Insulin increases inflammation, and this makes you feel lousy.
2.Habituation to caffeine decreases insulin sensitivity, making it difficult for your cells to respond appropriately to blood sugar. High blood sugar levels lead to arterial deterioration and increased risk of mortality related to cardiovascular disease.
3.Unfiltered coffee has the highest amount of beneficial antioxidants yet also leaks the most diterpenes into your system. These diterpenes have been linked to higher levels of triglycerides, LDL and VLDL levels.
4.The helpful chlorogenic acids that may delay glucose absorption in the intestine have also been shown to increase homocysteine levels — an indicator for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which tends to be elevated in diabesity.
5.The acidity of coffee is associated with digestive discomfort, indigestion, heart burn, GERD and dysbiosis (imbalances in your gut flora).
6.Addiction is often an issue with coffee drinkers and makes it really difficult to rely on the body’s natural source of energy. Ask any coffee drinker about how it feels to withdraw from coffee, and you will mistake their story for that of a drug addict’s…
7.Associative addictions trend with coffee — who doesn’t immediately think of warm, frothy sweet cream and sugar when they picture coffee? Surely the business of coffee has inspired a culture addicted to the sugary, fatty tastes of what has become more of a meal than a drink! That morning latte is the epitome of food lacking nutrition density yet packing energy!
8.5-HIA, an organic acid and component of the neurotransmitter serotonin (the happy chemical) seen in the urine tends to be elevated in coffee drinkers, which means they may be at risk for lower levels of serotonin synthesis in the brain. Serotonin is necessary for normal sleep, bowel function, mood, and energy levels. It is a vicious cycle, as caffeine can disrupt sleep and promote anxiety and depression. We all know someone who tends to be tired, wired and over-caffeinated!
9.Elevated urinary excretion of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium have been noted in coffee drinkers. An imbalance in your electrolyte status can lead to serious systemic complications.
10.Constituents in coffee can interfere with normal drug metabolism and detoxification in the liver, making it difficult to regulate the normal detoxification process in the liver. Another issue to be aware of with coffee intake is how certain medications such as levothyroxine (thyroid) as well as tricyclic antidepressants are poorly absorbed, making symptoms curiously worse for patients.

It’s a wise experiment to provide yourself a break from coffee intake and see what it feels like to live your life on your own fuel. Remove coffee and caffeine safely from your system and see how authentically energized you feel!

How to Avoid Withdrawal Symptoms

Those who consume the most caffeine, alcohol and sugar, and those who have the highest toxic load, tend to have the most difficulty initially. In any event, symptoms of withdrawal usually disappear after three or four days. It is best to slowly reduce your intake of caffeine and coffee.
•Make sure you drink at least six to eight glasses of filtered water daily. Instead of coffee in the morning, take some warm water with freshly-squeezed lemon juice.
•The best water to drink is water that has been passed through a filtering process. Common and inexpensive filters are available, such as carbon filters like the ones Brita makes. The best filter is a reverse osmosis filter that puts the water through a multi-step process to remove microbes, pesticides, metals, and other toxins. This can be installed under the sink. It’s a great filtering system and cheaper over the long run. Avoid water in plastic bottles, which contains phthalates, a toxic petrochemical. Mineral water or still water in glass bottles is also acceptable.
•To prevent headaches, make sure your bowel movements are regular.
•If you are tired, allow more time for sleep.
•Take 1,000 mg buffered vitamin C with breakfast and dinner.
•Make sure you exercise daily to help fight off fatigue. Even simple walking is good — 30 minutes daily.
•Some people rely on substituting coffee for real food. When you are hungry make sure to eat and do not let your blood sugar get low. Have some protein in the afternoon such as a handful of nuts or seeds like almonds, pecans, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds, cooked beans, or a piece of steamed or baked fish.
•If you’re irritable or have trouble sleeping, take a combination of calcium citrate 500 mg and magnesium citrate 250 mg before bed.
•Take a sauna or heat therapy in a bath.
•Practice pressing the pause button. Withdrawal can be stressful and research has shown that meditation and other mindful activities can help calm an overstimulated and stressed system while boosting the immune system.
•Keep a journal and track your symptoms. Note the difference in quality of energy you experience while off of coffee.
•Consider a complete elimination program and avoid all refined sugars, flours, caffeine, alcohol, dairy, gluten and any other addictive substance. By allowing certain triggers to stay in the diet the body stays on the vicious cycle of cravings and addictive behavior. Reset your biology by eliminating all these dietary triggers for inflammation and fatigue.

I know this is a difficult goal, but I assure you that your body and mind will thank you. The sense of calm, clarity and restful sleep will reward you with the simple pleasures of innate health and an energy that is rightfully yours.

We’d like to hear from you…

What have you tried to break free from caffeine and what worked best for you?

Source Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/quit-coffee_b_1598108.html

Healthy Coffee Alternatives

In the Hungry For Change Book we discuss the addictive nature of caffeine and when consumed in large quantities, can lead to adrenal fatigue. Coffee is also a diuretic, meaning it purges water from your body. That said, if you want to function at a high level and remain well hydrated, then it would be a better choice to replace coffee with a natural alternative. The list below provides some great tasting substitutes.

Teeccino Caffeine-free Herbal Coffee

This coffee alternative is popular among those who have removed regular coffee from their diets because it tastes very similar to coffee but is caffeine free. A mix of carob, barley, chicory nuts and other flavors (there are all kinds of varieties) it is truly tasty, can be brewed like coffee (in a French press, via tea bags or in an espresso machine), and mixes nicely with milk, soy milk or just plain honey if you’re more of a black coffee/milk-free person.

Yerbe Mate

If you’re not necessarily seeking a coffee taste, this herbal tea with numerous health benefits is a great choice. Not only does Yerbe Mate taste great hot or cold but it has powerful antioxidant properties, and it can also accelerate weight loss as it revs up the metabolism.

Green Tea

Green tea has less caffeine than a cup of coffee but enough to give you a boost without any of the coffee jitters. Its also packed with Catechins, which are powerful antioxidants and potent disease fighters.

Licorice Tea

Licorice tea is actually caffeine-free, but supports overburdened adrenal glands, which are organs that respond to stress. “Licorice is an adrenal tonic and increases energy. It adds a pleasant taste to tea blends and can also be taken in tincture form,” explain Dr. Linda B. White and Steven Foster, authors of TheHerbal Drugstore.

Wheatgrass Juice

This natural energizer is known as a liquid shot of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Some people don’t mind the taste and others do, but all agree that wheatgrass is one of the most nourishing juices. “Because of its easy digestibility and rapid assimilation, it’s a natural energy supplement, whether alone or added to a protein-type supplement drink,” says Gloria Gilbère, doctor of natural health.

Reishi Mushroom Tea

If you’re looking for a unique coffee alternative, try mushrooms in the form of tea. A staple in traditionalChinese medicine, the soft, flat reishi mushroom makes for one invigorating (and healthy) libation. White and Foster recommend combining 1/3 ounce of chopped or powdered reishi mushroom with 3 cups of water, then bringing the tea to a boil and simmering for 30 minutes before drinking in doses.

Rooibos Tea

Rooibos is another full-flavored tea that can be mixed with any kind of milk and has plenty of flavor all on its own as well. It’s a refreshing pick me up and some health experts say it has immune-boosting properties.

Source Links:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-alternatives-to-coffee.html#ixzz2LPvXpPME
http://voices.yahoo.com/3-top-healthy-coffee-alternatives-5858726.html
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-drinks/15-creative-alternatives-coffee

By Dr Mark Hyman

With summer coming, everyone’s thinking about wanting to look good and feel great, making diet plans the hot topic on many people’s mind. Here’s my take on three of the latest plans—the Fast Diet, the Fast Metabolism Diet, and the VB6 Diet—and offered my take on each.

With all the new diet trends that seem to spring up daily, it’s not surprising many people are confused about what to eat. Most diets that promise optimal health and weight loss have their good points. But at the end of the day, all diets use a gimmick or trick to make you focus on how to change your eating habits to be healthier. They’re each based on ideas like eating certain foods at a certain time or cutting out certain foods.
What works best is really very simple: eating real food; cutting out junk, sugar, and processed foods; and eating sensible portions.

If you look at the science of metabolism and weight, it says these basic things:
•We should stop the SAD diet (or Standard American Diet, which is heavy in processed foods, meat, dairy, flour, and sugar)
•We should eat more whole plant foods (veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains—not whole grain flour)

This helps us eat in a way that balances our blood sugar and insulin, which is the hunger and fat storage hormone.
I’m all for anything that gets people to shift their diet in a healthy direction. So, with that in mind, let’s look at how these three diet plans measure up.

The Fast Diet

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The Fast Diet is also called the 5:2 Diet. This plan advises you to eat 600 calories two days a week, and then eat whatever you want on the other five days of the week—pizza, junk food, whatever. This just doesn’t make sense. Intermittent fasting is good and has been used for healing, but in this context, advising people to eat less at first and then feel free to eat pizza, burgers, fries, and soda sends the wrong message. It’s not sustainable, and you end up feeling bad!

Calorie restriction—reducing your calories by a third—has been proven to extend lifespan by a third and helps to reverse the damage to our body caused by sugar and processed foods. But it’s hard and not fun! We already fast everyday, after dinner until breakfast (that’s why it’s called “break” “fast”). This helps our bodies heal and repair, which is why you shouldn’t eat less than three hours before bed. But the 5:2 plan of fasting for two days and then bingeing for five is not a great idea.

Pros:
•Regulates insulin and blood sugar to help with weight loss
•Intermittent fasting helps your body to repair and heal
Cons:
•No guidelines for the non-fasting days; the author makes assumptions that people will use their best judgment
•It’s not a fasting diet; it’s a low calorie diet, because you’re cutting your caloric intake down by a third

The Fast Metabolism Diet

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The Fast Metabolism Diet focuses on simple strategies to boost your metabolism. It’s actually based on a lot of the same functional medicine science that I write about—getting to the root causes of things. The author of this plan advises people not to eat processed foods, junk, gluten, dairy, corn, soy, caffeine, and alcohol.

She recommends eating small meals, and she focuses on the quality of the food, not counting calories. She had studied to be a vet, and all vets study nutrition. While doctors for humans know almost nothing about nutrition, vets know exactly the diet needed to make a thoroughbred horse perform. Professional athletes also eat in specific ways to enhance their performance, and this diet works in the same way.

Pros:
•It teaches people about how the metabolism works, letting them know that certain foods do harm the metabolism
•It cuts down insulin, which leads to weight loss; people can absolutely lose 20 pounds in a month on this plan, because it cuts down insulin
Cons:
•It takes away a lot of things that are a staple in our diet and can be too restrictive for some
•The weekly rotation, switching around of protein, fats, and carbs, is a bit complicated for many people

The VB6 Diet

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The VB6 Diet is the most sensible and powerful of all the programs I’ve mentioned. It’s not a diet; it’s a way of rethinking your relationship to food. Mark Bittman, the author of the program, calls it being a “flexitarian.” But I think the key is being a “qualitarian,” eating only good quality real foods no matter what.

The basic plan is to be a vegan—no animal-based foods—before 6 p.m., and then eat whatever you want afterward. But he really means for you to eat any real whole food you want. For most people, fruits and vegetables make up less than 10% of their diet. He wants to amp that up.

Cutting down on animal-derived foods makes good sense for a number of reasons. The consumption of 200 pounds of meat and 600 pounds of dairy every year is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. It damages our soil and pollutes and depletes our water supply. Just think about this: in terms of climate change, you would be better off driving a Hummer and being a vegetarian than driving a Prius and eating meat.

Bittman offers six simple principles to fix our healthcare and obesity crisis and help our environment. They are:

•Eat more fruits and vegetables
•Eat less animal products—this is good for our bodies and good for the planet
•Eat no (or almost no) junk or processed foods
•Cook real food at home from fresh ingredients
•Choose quality over quantity—be a qualitarian!
•Don’t focus on weight; focus on health—weight loss is the side effect
Pros:
•Puts the focus on plant-based, whole food diets
•It’s not as restrictive; you still have choices after 6 p.m.

Cons:
•You can’t really eat whatever you want after 6 p.m. There are foods that are good and some that are bad. Trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG: these things are making us fat. So, eating them, in general, is bad. If you binge on bad foods every night, you won’t see any progress.

Tips for Trying a New Diet

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Be a “qualitarian.” Focus on eating quality, real, whole foods instead of processed, industrial food, sugar, flour, dairy, and meat. It’s easy to binge on the bad stuff. The average American drinks 57 gallons of soda per year and many can drink two 20-ounce sodas in a day. But it’s hard to eat too much broccoli. Good luck trying to eat the equivalent amount of broccoli in a single day. That would be 15 cups! So, go ahead and eat plenty of the good stuff—there’s always room for more.

The Importance of Both Diet and Exercise

Exercise is the magic pill that cures every disease and illness. Exercise boosts your metabolism and reduces inflammation, depression, diabetes, heart disease, and even dementia.

But if you’re eating a bad diet, exercise is not enough. If you have one 20-ounce soda, you have to walk over four miles to burn it off. If you eat a supersized meal, you’ll have to run four miles every day for a week.

Bottom line: for optimal health, you need to exercise, but you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet! Choose real, whole, quality foods; eat plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and healthy fats; and savor the experience of eating well this summer.

Chronic pain is a modern day epidemic that affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. It costs nations billions of dollars in lost productivity and medical expenses every year. Debilitating pain affects more individuals than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. Doctors throw drug after drug at these pain syndromes with very little long-term success. Here are some of the best natural agents to reduce pain.

The most commonly used drugs to treat chronic pain conditions include opioids (morphine), nonsteroids (salicylates such as aspirin and ibuprofen), antidepressants, antiepileptics and anti-nerve growth factor inhibitors. All of these drugs have awful side effects and addictive tendencies. In fact, prescription and over the counter pain medications are the fastest growing drug addiction in North America.

Addressing the underlying mental/emotional, chemical and physical stressors that are causing the chronic inflammation and pain is the ultimate goal. This process takes time and deep introspection along with trusted holistic healthcare providers. Here are some great natural pain relievers that have no dangerous side effects. In fact, these nutrients have a significantly positive health effect on the entire body.

Best natural pain relievers

Proteolytic enzymes: Proteolytic enzymes are specific enzymes that metabolize protein. These enzymes are naturally produced by the human body and other living organisms and help carry out essential functions. Studies have shown that these reduce the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein as well as arterial plaques, blood clots and scar tissue . These enzymes are also effective at reducing swelling, pain and edema. Proteolytic enzymes are also able to eat away at abnormal and cancer cell growths and allow the immune system to destroy tumorous growths.

Turmeric, ginger and boswelia: Taking large doses of anti-inflammatory herbs has been shown to dramatically reduce pain, swelling and inflammation. These herbs provide powerful antioxidants and help modulate the immune system to ensure that it doesn’t hyper-inflame the damaged or vulnerable regions of the body.

Omega-3 fatty acids and astaxanthin: Omega-3 fatty acid supplements and astaxanthin reduce inflammation. Omega-3s help provide better cell membrane receptor activity while astaxanthin provides a very strong antioxidant effect that combine to powerfully reduce inflammation and pain.

Probiotics: Chronic pain is often a sign of leaky gut syndrome and infections in the gut. Parasites will release toxins that increase inflammation within the body and for many individuals with cause states of chronic pain. Probiotics help to neutralize these toxins and fight back against parasites and other antagonistic organisms in the gut.

MSM and sulfur-rich foods: MSM and sulfur-rich foods such as onions, garlic, chives, scallions, cruciferous vegetable family and raw, grass-fed dairy cheese and whey protein help reduce inflammation. MSM and sulfur containing amino acids have been shown to soften scar tissue, improve blood supply to the affected region, reduce muscle spasms and modulate inflammation.

Magnesium: Magnesium plays a critical role in relaxing muscles, maximizing blood flow and allowing nutrients to be delivered into cells. Magnesium deficiencies lead to muscle spasms, cramping, poor blood flow and lowered intracellular nutrient delivery. All of these create painful conditions in the body. Supplementing with magnesium and/or eating magnesium-rich foods like green, leafy veggies, sprouted seeds and raw cacao improves these conditions.

Methylating agents: Methylation is a key biochemical process that happens billions of times every second to repair the DNA in the body. B-vitamins are the key components to healthy methylation processes. Take a whole-food B complex supplement, improve your gut health to absorb these nutrients more effectively. It is also key to eat lots of dark, green leafy vegetables and organic animal products to get these nutrients.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=39160
http://www.naturalnews.com/033498_SerratioPeptidase_inflammation.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/030116_enzymes_cancer.html
http://www.sharecare.com/question/magnesium-help-relieve-pain

About the author:
Dr. David Jockers owns and operates Exodus Health Center in Kennesaw, Ga. He is a Maximized Living doctor. His expertise is in weight loss, customized nutrition & exercise, & structural corrective chiropractic care. For more information go to www.drjockers.com To find a Maximized Living doctor near you go to www.maximizedliving.com Dr. Jockers is also available for long distance phone consultations to help you beat disease and reach your health goals

The consequences of mass spraying, according to neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock

Back in the 1960’s, quiet scientific dialogue began about global climate change and how it can be manipulated. What might have turned into a productive discussion of responsible protection of Earth’s climate and ecosystem had eventually evolved into a mad, controlling science experiment. By the 21st century, jumbo jets were being deployed to drop billions of dollars of nanosized aluminum and other particles into the skies. In attempts to reflect sunlight away from the Earth and cool climate temperatures, this science experiment has exploited populations of people to mass amounts of airborne metals that are literally raining down and poisoning everyone, slowly, subtly.

According to neuro-surgeon Russell L. Blaylock, the nanosized aluminum particles found in chem-trails are contributing heavily to degenerative disease today.

Like in bio-engineering, where scientists rewire the DNA of crops, creating genetically modified foods, geo-engineering is the global attempt to manipulate the sun and Earth’s climate. In both mass engineering operations, “professionals” try to play “God,” but it’s a given – nature and natural processes cannot and were never meant to be controlled. Hence, we see the unintended consequences of degenerative disease occurring today due to GMOs and geo-engineering. All the disease statistics are neglected, however, as controllers justify their means.

Essentially, there needs to be a massive public outcry against geo-engineering similar to the outcry against genetically modified crops.

As the reality of geo-engineering takes hold and as the consequences mount, it’s never too late to stop the madness and work together for real grassroots environmental conservation. As these geo engineering experiments utilize military jumbo jets to unleash massive amounts of nanosized aluminum, strontium, and barium particles into the atmosphere, many may wonder if the global warming debate is just political distraction to gain public acceptance for the geo-engineering tactics. Many people are beginning to feel that these chem-trails are secretly employed to control and depopulate. After all, millions of unknowing people have become victims to these mass sprays, as they’ve become like fish in a bowl. Check your skies for chem-trails.

The effects of greenhouse gases are real, but when did any group, government, or billionaire gain the authority to use jets to pour massive amounts of elements on unsuspecting populations of people? As much as their research sounds accredited, they have no moral authority and they have no idea what they are destroying as soil and plants soak up the mass sprays falling on them.

The desire to experiment with the skies
When quiet discussions about climate change erupted in the 1960’s, scientists began tossing around ideas to combat global warming. By introducing sunlight-reflecting particles into the atmosphere, they could increase reflectivity slightly, counteracting heat-trapping gases, and thereby cooling the planet.

Colombian Dr. Broecker’s idea was to introduce sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere in the 80s. By 2006, Dr. Crutzen, a Nobel laureate from the Max Planck Institute began publishing reports on how that might work to cool the planet.

One of the main inventors of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller, thought that, “Injecting sunlight-scattering particles into the stratosphere appears to be a promising approach and wrote to The Wall Street Journal, “Why not do that?”

The consequences of mass spraying, according to neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock
According to neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, degenerative disease, especially neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s are growing at an alarming rate, due in major part to the mass spraying of nanosized aluminum into the atmosphere.

According to medical literature, nanosized particles are “infinitely more reactive and induce intense inflammation in a number of tissues.”

Dr. Blaylock states, “Of special concern is the effect these nanoparticles have on the brain and spinal cord, as a growing list of neuro-degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

Blaylock explains further that aluminum nano particles can easily penetrate the brain through the blood and olfactory nerves in the nose. Passing through the olfactory neural tracts, aluminum particles easily penetrate the area of the brain most affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

Furthermore, in Alzheimer’s cases, this part of the brain has shown to contain the highest level of aluminum!

The aluminum particles also enter the body through the respiratory system, where they have been shown to cause tremendous inflammation in the lungs, further aggravating conditions like asthma and pulmonary diseases. Due to their small size, the aluminum particles can even enter the gastrointestinal tract and can disperse into many other organs and tissues in the body, including the spinal cord.

As a neurosurgeon who interacts daily with neurological disease, Dr. Blaylock addresses states his objections to the global spraying of aluminum into the skies, “Steps need to be taken now to prevent an impending health disaster of enormous proportions if this project is not stopped immediately. Otherwise we will see an explosive increase in neurodegenerative diseases occurring in adults and the elderly in unprecedented rates as well as neurodevelopment disorders in our children. We are already seeing a dramatic increase in these neurological disorders and it is occurring in younger people more than ever before.”

Sources for this article include:

CLN Home Page

Home

http://www.infowars.com

Welcome to Carnicom Institute

http://www.nytimes.com

Most people who don’t tune into Natural News eat bug and weed killer every day, maybe even every meal of their lives. Many Americans, namely one in every three or more, get cancer and can’t figure out why. Their doctors won’t tell them the truth, and they just can’t believe that it came from the food they ate, but 90% of the time, it does. Since the early 1990’s, Americans have been secretly fed bug and weed killer in their fruits and vegetables, and in their cereals, bagels, chips, oils and bread. Most innocent folks who don’t spend any time doing research on what they put in their mouths think that if they take their fruit and vegetables home and wash them off, or cook them well, that they are getting rid of toxins and they don’t have much to worry about.

On top of all of that, most consumers love their meat and dairy, and wouldn’t quit it for the world, but they don’t realize that the hormones in most conventional meat and milk are overwhelming their bodies, leading to the development of tumors and cancer cells, which is just more fuel for the bug and weed killer they eat with every meal, causing inflammation and breaking down their immune and central nervous system. (http://www.infowars.com) The animals most Americans feast on are fed bug and weed killer food all day, including alfalfa, corn, soy, and even candy. That is what causes the massive digestive illnesses during the animals’ lives, and this is exactly why they give them so many antibiotics. Add in horrific disease breeding conditions and you compound the toxic “meat and milk” health nightmare. This is standard in the USA on the big farms that are owned, manipulated, operated and turned into CAFO-style nightmares run by Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Syngenta, Bayer and more “Big Ag” Biotech dirty giants.
(http://www.naturalnews.com)

Average American eats 60 lbs. of High Fructose Corn Syrup annually
What kills more Americans than anything else, including guns, drugs and medicine? Bug and weed killer tops the chart! Are you eating bug killer corn sugar (HFCS) daily? Are your children or siblings eating weed killing soy daily? This is food politics and the war on cancer, except in this case it means the war to SPREAD CANCER instead of trying to prevent or cure it. (http://www.foodpolitics.com)

Almost all processed foods and refined sugars come from GMO corn, which is now deadly in America. Most processed foods also contain GM soy and GM canola, which are also deadly. Let’s talk bluntly here: Eating Monsanto food causes cancer. Have you ever smelled bug killer, like ant or roach spray? Have you ever smelled RoundUp weed killer? GMO means food contains bug killer and/or weed killer, did you know? You can’t wash it off. And what does bug killer do? Bug killer kills the bugs from the inside out, by dissolving their digestive system. It’s like acid to the bugs.
(http://www.naturalnews.com)

GMO; the Trojan Horse of Food Toxins
The big death cover up is upon us. The biggest cancer nightmare, food which changes your DNA by inserting DNA from insects, mixed with chemicals of all sorts, including herbicide and insecticides, which form in the human stomach and eat you alive from the inside out, just like a bug. This breeds SUPER INSECTS in your gut also known as PARASITES.
(http://www.motherjones.com)

Humans are becoming the weeds of the healthcare industry, and cancer is being fed and bred from the inside out. The only escape is to be educated about GMO weed and bug killer, so you know which foods, drinks and skin care products contain it. (http://www.fooducate.com)

Attention all Natural News enthusiasts, “Don’t Eat Cancer” and it won’t eat you alive: (http://programs.webseed.com)

Sources for this article include:

http://www.foodpolitics.com

http://www.infowars.com

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://programs.webseed.com

The most widely used pesticide chemical in the world, glyphosate has been a target of environmental protection and human rights groups alike for many years now. And rightly so, as glyphosate, which is widely marketed and sold under the Monsanto-owned brand Roundup, is linked to causing cell damage, genetic mutations, miscarriages, behavioral disorders, reproductive damage, immune disease, cancer, and death.

All of this and more is revealed in a 2004 paper published in the Journal of Pesticide Reform, which highlights many of the dirty little secrets about glyphosate that you will never hear about from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or any other regulatory authority for that matter. While the EPA and others are busy arbitrarily declaring glyphosate to be safe enough to eat, real scientists are uncovering the many horrors associated with exposure to this pervasive chemical.

Glyphosate was created to kill life
By its very nature, glyphosate has been designed to squelch life before it can even begin. Monsanto’s own background and marketing materials for glyphosate explain how the chemical blocks plants from producing the nutrients they need to survive, effectively killing them. And this chemical solution is being indiscriminately spread across tens of millions of acres of crop land every single year in the U.S., which is leading to massive dead zones of lifeless soil and polluted earth.

“Glyphosate blocks the activity of an enzyme used by plants to make certain important amino acids,” explains the glyphosate fact sheet. “Without these amino acids, the plant cannot make proteins required for various life processes, resulting in the death of the plant. Glyphosate is a broad spectrum herbicide, so it kills most types of plants.”

Did you catch that? Taken literally, this succinct description reveals glyphosate to be nothing more than a life-destroying poison. Natural, living organisms, in other words, do not stand a chance when it comes to being exposed to this chemical – only genetically-modified (GM) plants that have been artificially programmed to resist glyphosate are able to survive, and this at the monumental expense of the greater ecosystem in which they reside.

Commercial glyphosate formulas contain dozens of highly-toxic ‘inert’ ingredients
But glyphosate itself is not the only major cause for concern when it comes to the chemical’s use. As it turns out, Roundup and many other commercial glyphosate formulas are also loaded with all sorts of so-called “inert” ingredients that are not indicated on the label. As highlighted in the glyphosate report, these inert ingredients typically carry with them their own toxicity, triggering many of the same harmful side effects as glyphosate in isolation.

5-Chloro-2-methyl 3(2H)-isothiazolone, for instance, is a chemical component used in Roundup that has been linked to causing both allergic reactions and genetic damage in laboratory tests. And 3-Iodo-2-propynyl butyl carbamate, a biocide often used in glyphosate formulas, has been shown to cause thyroid damage and growth abnormalities in test subjects. Other harmful glyphosate ingredients include petroleum distillates, polyoxyethylene alkylamine, and methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, which are linked to fertility problems, genetic damage, and other harm.

“Four laboratory studies published in the late 1990s demonstrated the ability of glyphosate and glyphosate-containing herbicide products to cause genetic damage,” adds the report. “(And) three recent studies have demonstrated a link between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer.”

Soil persistence, water contamination, drift, damage to plants and animals, and “superweeds” are among the many other major causes of concern with regards to glyphosate. None of these issues has ever been properly addressed by governing authorities, and yet glyphosate continues to increase in use year after year.

Be sure to read the entire report on glyphosate as published in the Journal of Pesticide Reform by visiting:
http://www.pesticide.org

Sources for this article include:

http://www.pesticide.org

http://www.naturalnews.com

Food & Water Watch

Processed foods are typically loaded with excess sugar, salt, unhealthful fats, preservatives and other additives.

But you probably know this already. What you may not know about processed foods is the extent of the havoc they can wreak on your body, a closely guarded secret that the processed food industry doesn’t want you to know.

In short, though they may taste good and be easy to prepare, when you eat processed foods you’re exchanging convenience for your health.

10 Processed-Food Secrets the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

In the featured article,1 Donna Gates, author of The Body Ecology Diet, explains 10 reasons why you might want to think twice the next time you’re tempted to eat processed foods.

1. They’re Addictive and May Cause You to Overeat

Processing modifies or removes important components of food, like fiber, water and nutrients, changing the way they are digested and assimilated in your body.

Unlike whole foods, which contain a mix of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fiber and water to help you feel satisfied, processed foods stimulate dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter, making you feel good even though the food lacks nutrients and fiber. This artificial dopamine stimulation can lead to excessive food cravings and, ultimately, food addiction.

2. They’re Linked to Obesity

Processed foods are virtually guaranteed to contain additives that are linked to obesity. This includes monosodium glutamate (MSG), high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and more. Plus, refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar.,

This increases your insulin and leptin levels, and contribute to insulin resistance, which is the primary underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

3. They Break Principles of Food Combining

Some nutrition and health experts, such as Wayne Pickering, believe that eating foods in certain combinations helps your body’s digestive processes to work more efficiently and absorb more nutrients. According to one such premise, eating proteins and starches together, which is common in processed foods (such as a pepperoni pizza), inhibits digestion leading to putrification of your food, acidic conditions in your blood and supports disease-causing pathogens in your gut.

4. Processed Foods Lead to an Imbalanced Inner Ecosystem

The microorganisms living in your digestive tract form a very important “inner ecosystem” that influences countless aspects of your health. Processed foods disrupt this system, suppressing beneficial microflora and leading to digestive problems, cravings, illnesses and chronic disease. Beneficial organisms in your gut thrive on whole, unprocessed foods.

5. They’re Detrimental to Your Mood and Brain

Mood swings, memory problems and even depression are often the result of a heavily processed-food diet. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! Your gut and brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa – and why eating processed foods that can harm your gut flora can have a profoundly negative impact on your mood, psychological health and behavior.

6. Processed Foods Encourage ‘Eating on the Run’

Processed foods are quick and easy, making them ‘perfect’ to grab when you’re on the go. But eating on the go, or while you’re multi-tasking, can cause you to lose touch with your body’s natural signals telling you you’re full, leading to overeating and weight gain. It’s also more difficult for your body to digest properly when you’re busily engaged in other tasks.

7. Nutrition Labels can be Misleading

A processed food may be labeled ‘natural’ or ‘sugar-free,’ but that doesn’t make it healthful. For instance, the natural food label on a processed food has no standard definition and really no meaning at all. A “natural” product is meaningless as it can legally be genetically modified, full of pesticides or made with corn syrup, additives, preservatives and artificial ingredients.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also allows processed food manufacturers to use absurdly tiny serving sizes on their labels, which can lull you into a false sense of security when it comes to determining how much of each stated nutrient or toxin, like trans fat, you’re actually consuming.

8. Processed Meats are Linked to Cancer

Processed meats are those preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or the addition of chemical preservatives, which includes bacon, ham, pastrami, salami, pepperoni, hot dogs, some sausages and hamburgers (if they have been preserved with salt or chemical additives) and more. Particularly problematic are the nitrates that are added to these meats as a preservative, coloring and flavoring.

The nitrates found in processed meats are frequently converted into nitrosamines, which are clearly associated with an increased risk of certain cancers. Meat cooked at high temperatures, as many processed meats often are, can also contain as many as 20 different kinds of heterocyclic amines, or HCAs for short. These substances are also linked to cancer.

9. Processed Foods May Increase Your Risk of Infertility and Malnutrition

Because processed foods are stripped of nutrients your body needs, you could be eating a large number of calories but still become malnourished. In just three generations, a nutrient-deficient diet can lead to infertility, which is on the rise in the US.2 Plus, processed foods often contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients, which are also linked to reproductive problems.

10. Processed Foods Lead to a Long Shelf Life, Not a Long Human Life

Processed foods can last a long time on the shelf without going bad, thanks to their chemical cocktails of preservatives and other additives. Unfortunately, their makers put a lot of money and time into strategies to increase shelf life and create attractive packaging, with little attention put on the foods’ nutrient value or how it will actually detract from lasting health.

What Are the Worst Processed Food Additives?

When foods are processed, not only are valuable nutrients lost and dietary fiber removed, but the textures and natural variation and flavors are also lost. After processing, what’s left behind is a bland, uninteresting “pseudo-food” that most people wouldn’t want to eat.

Additives are added back in not only to slow spoilage, prevent fats and oils from going rancid, prevent fruits from turning brown, and fortify or enrich the food with synthetic vitamins and minerals to replace the natural ones that were lost during processing, but also to improve taste, texture and appearance. When reading product packages, here are some of the worst offenders to avoid if you want to protect your health (many of these are already banned in other countries due to health risks):

Ingredient

Found in

Health Hazards

Coloring agents: blue 1, blue 2, yellow 5, and yellow 6

Cake, candy, macaroni and cheese, medicines, sport drinks, soda, pet food, and cheese

Most artificial colors are made from coal tar, which is a carcinogen

Olestra (aka Olean)

Fat-free potato chips

Depletion of fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids. Side effects include oily anal leakage

Brominated vegetable oil (aka BVO)

Sports drinks and citrus-flavored sodas

Competes with iodine for receptor sites in the body, which can lead to hypothyroidism, autoimmune disease, and cancer. The main ingredient, bromine, is a poisonous, corrosive chemical, linked to major organ system damage, birth defects, growth problems, schizophrenia, and hearing loss

Potassium bromate (aka brominated flour)

Rolls, wraps, flatbread, bread crumbs, and bagel chips

See bromine above. Associated with kidney and nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal discomfort

Azodicarbonamide

Breads, frozen dinners, boxed pasta mixes, and packaged baked goods

Linked to asthma

BHA and BHT

Cereal, nut mixes, gum, butter, meat, dehydrated potatoes, and beer

BHA may be a human carcinogen, a cancer-causing agent. BHT can cause organ system toxicity

Synthetic hormones: rBGH and rBST

Milk and dairy products

Linked to breast, colon, and prostate cancers

Arsenic

Poultry

EPA classifies inorganic arsenic as a “human carcinogen”

A Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Ditching Processed Foods

When it comes to staying healthy, avoiding processed foods and replacing them with fresh, whole foods is the “secret” you’ve been looking for. This might sound daunting, but if you take it step-by-step as described in my nutrition plan it’s quite possible, and manageable, to painlessly remove processed foods from your diet.

Remember, people have thrived on vegetables, meats, eggs, fruits and other whole foods for centuries, while processed foods were only recently invented. Many of the top executives and scientists at leading processed food companies actually avoid their own foods for a variety of health reasons!

I believe you, too, should spend 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods (unfortunately most Americans currently do the opposite). This requires that you plan your meals in advance. Ideally, this will involve scouting out your local farmer’s markets for in-season produce that is priced to sell, and planning your meals accordingly, but you can also use this same premise with supermarket sales. You can generally plan a week of meals at a time, make sure you have all ingredients necessary on hand, and then do any prep work you can ahead of time so that dinner is easy to prepare if you’re short on time in the evenings (and you can use leftovers for lunches the next day).

Further, by cutting out these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy fats, not protein—a fact that’s often not addressed. I believe most people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthful fats, which include:

Olives and olive oil

Coconuts and coconut oil

Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk

Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat

Organic pastured egg yolks and pastured meats

Avocados

If cravings are a problem for you, please review my article about how to wean yourself off processed food in seven easy steps. If you’re currently sustaining yourself on fast food and processed foods, this is one of the most positive life changes you could ever make.

By Dr. Mercola

By now, you are probably aware I am a strong proponent of sun exposure and its many health benefits. Most of those benefits come from the boost in vitamin D, but a new UK study suggests sunlight’s benefits extend far beyond vitamin D.

In fact, exposure to the sun may be one of the most important steps you can take in preventing heart disease and stroke. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh discovered that when sunlight touches your skin, nitric oxide is released into your bloodstream,1 and nitric oxide is a powerful blood pressure lowering compound.

Researchers have concluded sun exposure may even prolong your life by significantly cutting your heart attack/stroke risk. The abstract for the study was published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology on April 15, 2013.2

The Edinburgh researchers mentioned an absolutely stunning statistic. For every one skin cancer death in northern Europe, between 60 and 100 people die from stroke or heart disease, related to hypertension.

Knowing that your risk of dying from heart disease or stroke is 80 times greater on average than from skin cancer really puts it in perspective.3 While higher vitamin D levels also correlate with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, oral vitamin D supplements do not appear to benefit blood pressure, and this latest study may be telling us why.

Researcher Richard Weller stated:

“We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight.”

You are My Sunshine

Research is illuminating a forever-growing list of sunlight’s health benefits. This isn’t really surprising when you consider the fact that we evolved hunting and foraging under the sun.

This team of researchers found that your body’s production of nitric oxide is separate from its production of vitamin D, so it follows that there are two completely separate sets of benefits. Until now, increased vitamin D had been thought to be the sole explanation for the sun’s health benefits, but it appears from these latest findings that vitamin D is only one part of the story.4

Besides the benefits derived from increased vitamin D, the sun also provides relief from a wide variety of health problems from mechanisms separate from vitamin D. For a comprehensive overview, refer to our previous article on the sun’s benefits, but here are just a few:
•Improved mood and energy levels through the release of endorphins
•Better melatonin regulation and synchronization of your biorhythms
•Suppression of the symptoms of fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis
•Treating skin diseases (including psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, and scleroderma) and antibiotic-resistant infections, such as MRSA
•Treating tuberculosis, neonatal jaundice, and possibly T cell lymphoma

Why Care About Nitric Oxide?

The researchers found that sunlight triggers your skin’s production of nitric oxide. Why is this significant? Because nitric oxide is crucial for maintaining healthy blood pressure, helps prevent atherosclerosis, and plays a role in modulating immune system function.

Your skin contains large stores of nitrite and nitrate, but only the nitrite is biologically active. Sunlight appears to prompt conversion of nitrate to nitrite and nitric oxide (NO). Please don’t confuse nitric oxide (NO) with nitrous oxide (N2O), or “laughing gas,” the anesthetic gas used by dentists.

Nitric oxide is such an important compound that it was dubbed “Molecule of the Year” by Science magazine in 1992, followed by the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine for its discovery as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Your blood vessels require the amino acid L-arginine for the synthesis of nitric oxide, since L-arginine is its precursor in your body.

By helping to regulate your blood pressure, nitric oxide enhances blood flow. Nitric oxide signals the smooth muscle cells in your blood vessels to relax so that your vessels dilate and your blood flows more freely, which helps your arteries stay free of plaque. When you have inadequate nitric oxide, your risk for coronary artery disease increases.

If your blood is flowing freely, then nearly every physiological process will function better. If your blood is sluggish, then important cells and nutrients can’t reach the areas that need them. It’s like getting the tow truck to the scene of the accident… no tow truck means no repairs.

Not only is nitric oxide important in regulating blood pressure, it also functions as a signaling molecule in your brain and immune system. Besides sitting in the sun, you can increase your nitric oxide levels with a few natural supplements and techniques:
•Calcium and magnesium rich foods and supplements, and vitamins C and E
•Olive extract
•Bitter melon
•Electrical acupuncture
•Taking a warm bath, or by breathing in and out through one nostril (close off the other nostril and your mouth)

Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure, the SILENT Killer

According to the CDC, high blood pressure is the second greatest public health threat in the US. According to the CDC, 36 million people in the US have uncontrolled high blood pressure, and 14 million of them don’t even know it—quite alarming considering uncontrolled high blood pressure can be deadly when it results in a heart attack or stroke. But insufficient nitric oxide is just one factor contributing to the high blood pressure epidemic.

High blood pressure is associated with insulin and leptin resistance and elevated uric acid levels. One of the things driving up uric acid levels is overconsumption of fructose, and to a lesser degree, grains, beer and caffeine. Fructose breaks down into a variety of waste products, one of which is uric acid. Uric acid drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting nitric oxide in your blood vessels. In fact, 17 out of 17 studies demonstrate that elevated uric acid levels lead to hypertension.

According to the latest research, the safest range for uric acid is between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter, and there appears to be a steady relationship between uric acid levels and blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, even down to the range of 3 to 4 mg/dl. The ideal uric acid level appears to be around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear About Melanoma

Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer. However, your risk of dying from it pales in comparison to your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, as discussed earlier. And the rates of melanoma so often quoted by government officials may be grossly inflated, based on recent data.

A report in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology5 claims that 90 percent of melanoma surgeries are actually unnecessary removals of benign lesions and not melanoma at all, raising questions about the accuracy of the “melanoma epidemic.” The lead author of the report attributed the unnecessary excisions to an increased awareness by patients who see anti-sun promotions, such as “melanoma awareness” campaigns, and worriedly run into clinics demanding treatment. The report highlights the necessity of getting a second, and perhaps even a third opinion from a specialized clinic before going under the scalpel.

Unfortunately, what this means is that while the melanoma epidemic appears to be real if you go by surgical statistics, those stats actually paint a misleading picture if 90 percent of “melanoma cases” are not really melanoma! Sensible exposure to UVB light (adequate exposure without allowing your skin to burn) may actually protect you from melanoma, whereas UVA radiation is associated with skin damage. For example, indoor workers actually have a higher risk of melanoma than outdoor workers, suggesting that chronic sun exposure may indeed have a protective effect.

Melanoma studies are just now beginning to look at variables such as gender and affected body area. For example, one new Journal of Investigative Dermatology study found differences in skin cancer distribution patterns between men and women6. We need many more studies such as this before we can draw definitive conclusions about how the sun can increase—or decrease—your risk.

Basic Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Heart

Sunlight will provide enormous health benefits with respect to increasing your nitric oxide production, enhancing your vitamin D levels, and helping regulate your blood pressure, which in turn will reduce your overall cardiovascular risk. But you cannot stop there! You must also address other diet and lifestyle factors, starting with the basics.
•Proper Food Choices

For a comprehensive guide about which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my comprehensive nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should focus your diet on whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods that come from healthy, sustainable and preferably local sources. For the highest nutritional benefit, eat a good portion of your food raw.

Most people (although there are clearly individual differences) should strive for a diet high in healthful fats (as high as 50-70 percent of the calories you eat), moderate amounts of high quality protein, and abundant vegetables. Non-vegetable carbohydrates should be a fairly minimal part of your diet. Sugar, and fructose in particular, can act as a toxin when consumed in excess, driving multiple disease processes in your body including insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and systemic inflammation.
•High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

If you want to increase your overall health and energy level and prevent health conditions like heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other diseases, one of the most important strategies at your disposal is increasing your intake of omega-3 fats and reducing your intake of processed omega-6 fats. An animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is incredibly good for your heart and brain.
•Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise

Even if you’re eating the best diet in the world, you still need to exercise—and exercise effectively—if you wish to optimize your health. You should include core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and the right kind of stretching, as well as high-intensity “burst” type activities. Consider combining this with intermittent fasting to supercharge your metabolism.
•Optimize Your Vitamin D

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round, and the only way to determine this is with a blood test. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used when necessary. According to the latest research, most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day to achieve serum levels of about 40 ng/ml.

If you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2, as these two nutrients work in tandem to ensure calcium is distributed into the proper areas in your body. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. Fermented vegetables can be a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. Gouda and Edam cheese are also good sources.
•Stress Reduction and Emotional Housekeeping

Your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease, from heart disease to depression to cancer, and yet it’s the factor most often neglected. Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, energy psychology tools such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and yoga are all viable options that can help you relieve stress and clear out hidden emotional blocks.
•Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, pesticides and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
•Earthing, or Grounding Yourself to the Earth

When walking barefoot on the earth, free electrons transfer from the ground into your body through the soles of your feet. These free electrons are some of the most potent antioxidants known to man. Experiments have shown that these electrons decrease pain and inflammation, improve heart rate, promote sound sleep, and make your blood less viscous, which has a beneficial impact on cardiovascular health.

Lack of grounding due to widespread use of rubber or plastic-soled shoes has contributed to the rise of modern diseases by allowing chronic inflammation to proliferate unchecked. So the more you can walk barefoot on the ground, the better. Ideal locations are the beach, close to or in the water, and on dewy grass. If you spend much time indoors, you may want to consider investing in an Earthing mat.
•Drink Plenty of Fresh, Pure Water Every Day
•Get Plenty of High-Quality, Restorative Sleep